It’s called One Life, naturally.
One Life recently joined the roster of hopefuls on Steam Greenlight, and it’s got a — I see what I really didn’t mean to do there; too bad it’s impossible to delete words on the internet — killer concept. Die once and you’re done. One Life, its developers told me, will lock out your Steam account as soon as you kick the bucket. The “play” button in your launcher will go grey, and you’ll only be able to stare somberly at the history of your character.
“One Life is the first multiplayer survival game with perma-permadeath. If you die, you will leave the game forever. Will you manage to survive in this harsh world full of dangers? Upgrade your battle truck and set off for hot spots with friends. Play with your own rules but remember: your every move can be the last one.”
Here’s what it will look like in action:
Not too shabby, especially for a game that will theoretically function like a biker bar (from back before bikers went extinct and were replaced by hipsters who ironically love the vibe); people will walk in, get the beating of their lives, and never come back.
OK, that’s not necessarily true. First off, you’re not immediately dead-dead just because you bite the big one in combat. Players can choose if they want to spare you or finish you off, at which point things can get downright demented. “Forgive, humiliate, finish off, take everything he has — it’s your choice,” reads One Life‘s Greenlight page. “Saved [the] life of some loser? Take them captive and make them work off. They will do everything to be free again. No other game will give you this feeling of power over other people.”
That’s uhhhhhh… sure! Alright then! Please stop smiling at me while licking your lips and sort of… are you purring? What even is that?
The game’s developers are, however, aware that players don’t love the idea of plunking down $US10 only to lose their heads in ten seconds. They claim you’ll have a lot of control over where and how you start the game. Beyond that, they advise that you find friends and play conservatively.
One Life‘s developers also told me that they won’t be able to stop people from creating entirely new Steam accounts to play again. However, they hope that players honour the game’s one-and-done deal, to keep it authentic. “Creating another account won’t be the easiest thing as the player will feel the loss of the character and the ability to play One Life again on the emotional level,” they said.
Still, One Life strikes me as something of a tall order, especially since unlike Upsilon Circuit — which has a similar “die once, die forever” thing going on — there’s no alternative means of playing after you kick the bucket, no afterlife of vengeful spectator ghostliness. I imagine we’ll see a lot of Steam refunds on this one, at least if players end up dying before they have spent two hours with the game. Meanwhile, if you really want to account loophole your way back into the mortal realm, you still have to buy the game again. Are you interested in trying One Life, even if it ends up being $US10 dumped into an endlessly swirling toilet?
Comments
39 responses to “New First-Person Shooter Will Lock Out Your Steam Account When You Die”
It’s a nifty idea, but they’re going to see A LOT of refunds.
That’s a good point…if they get a refund, can you buy it again for another life?
Actually, you could probably revive yourself by changing your Steam ID without needing to refund.
hax
I might give it a go. Though A bunch of psychopaths will most likely be the only ones playing long term……
I’m sure there will be that happening
Sounds more like an experiment rather than something you should give money to.
It’s going to have to be a very good game to gain any traction. If anyone finds an exploit or a hack, or a glitch/bug kills you then you’ve basically been conned out of $10. Though that would be a pretty interesting meta-game.
I think a 24-hour or one week lockout would be a better idea. Then I might consider a purchase.
Or run it in seasons of x weeks and allow restart at a new season. It seems like there must be a way to maintain the conservative “my life matters” gameplay they are aiming for while not just locking people out forever of a game they are really enjoying.
Surely they realise that even on a purely business level, the current concept will not work.
No no no, make it like a Hunger Games style tournament! Every player in a pool of servers, the final players after a long while are placed together in the single server, winner gets $10,000. Watch the $$$ come in!
I think what is better then hardcore especially in games like POE and D3 is one death. You are allowed to die once then if you die again that is it.
At first it might seem a soft approach, but consider a hardcore season with this. The season might last only 1 month a extremely fast season compared to the normal 3 month. Once a player has finally died that is it and he will have to wait until the next season to play again.
Now the strategy comes more into play with that one life. Do you treat it as a extra get out of jail free card and take things slowly being cautious treating it as a normal HC server or do you put your foot down and get as much farm/xp as possible taking more risk to gain an advantage over other players with better items/levels.
If you decide to use the life to play riskier do you play risky early on to gain a quick advantage, or do you play more conservative in the hope you still have it later in the season when your higher level and can farm faster i.e once your character hits a certain milestone then you might throw caution to the wind with the extra life.
Sounds like one of the plot lines in Caprica (Battlestar Galactica prequel).
That show ended up being pretty shit.
I was pretty excited for it too.
Yeah I struggled with it towards the end.
I get what they’re doing, but surely there could be an almost comparable result with 1-6 month lockouts?
No way in hell I’d pay for a game like that. If I purchase a game then I want to be able to play it when I want to play…not play for a bit, die and then I’ve wasted my money.
Also pretty stupid from a design standpoint having a multiplayer game where your player base is literally killed off. The main draw of multiplayer is that there are other players, kill them off and it gets boring.
This could all just be a marketing tactic to generate hype though. Wouldn’t surprise me if they came out saying they’d “listened” to the feedback and have decided to introduce creating a new character after x amount of time, or having “seasonal” gameplay where you can play and die once per season etc..
don’t buy it then, there are hundreds of other games out there. Would be nice to have something like this for once.
…and I won’t buy it. Thanks for telling me to do something I had already stated…
As for having it for once…well you’d have it once and that’d be it.
I’m happy to take the challenge. $10 is menial, people spend more on cs skins
That’s the difference between us then, I value my cash more and would rather spend it on something I can get more out of.
Also, that’s $10 US so it’s more like $15 for us.
All good in theory, but I’m worried about the risk of hackers.
If DayZ and Rust is anything to go by. Then yes this is my main concern.
“The line between game and reality, is blurred…” – you lost me.
I’m extremely keen for this.
Love perma death as it really get’s your adrenaline going .
REF: LVL 200 on oto mustang Dofus Perma death server 😉
So when Aussie internet eventually/invariably fucks up and causes me a death, I’m booted out of the game for good?
No thanks, I’ll pass entirely.
ITS A TRAP!!!
Hacker joins. Kills everyone.
Mass refunds ensue…………..
Bull and Shit.
Fuck that.
Hacker joins, kills everyone. Bye money….
Really? And the video has it playing like a dodgy FPS with shotguns, kill sprees and circle strafing.
It will be camper city within a day.
really really bad idea.
what if you die due to a bug or lag out and die?
also, why would you LITERALLY kill off your playerbase?
Sounds like a great idea for a single player game but not multiplayer. If you manage to stay alive for a month after release then goodluck trying to find a active game.
Great. The future of gaming… pay for lives.
And Im not including extra hearts in Candy Crush.
That’s not the future, that’s the past 😉
If it plays like single player Stalker, I’m in. I’ll gamble 10bux on the promise of a slow, deliberate survival based shooter with real stakes and no cowboys or kamikaze players.
http://www.no.com
I’ll definitely drop $10 down on this, hell the amount of money I’ve pissed away in arcades playing Time Crisis or Ghost Squad just for that similar, “you get hit 3 times and you’re gone” kind of gameplay.
Hopefully the community will be decent, because it’s almost guaranteed that without a bounty system against those who execute players, everyone is just going to kill on sight and execute.